The weekend of May 29th through May 31st saw the reconvening of the Left Forum. This years event was titled NO JUSTICE NO PEACE – Confronting the crises of capitalism and democracy. The event was held at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York in New York City. This event is the largest annual gathering in North America of the US and international Left. Nearly 5,000 people were said to be in attendance. The Left Forum brings together activists, intellectuals and academics to share their perspectives, experiences, strategies and visions.

For your consideration, what follows are videos from seven sessions as well as the closing plenary conducted at the conference out of a total of over 400 scheduled events. While this is a small sample, it does represent a broad perspective of current left political thinking. We know that the global economic and political system is exacerbating savage conflicts. Liberal democratic solutions have failed utterly to remedy these seemingly intractable problems. Radical solutions that include a total re-evaluation of capitalism itself are what is called for. It is becoming increasing obvious to anyone with a clear mind that this destructive system, capitalism, is broken and they can’t fix it. What type of movement(s) will it take to overcome these daunting problems? Some of the analysis and strategies you will hear presented in these recorded sessions might offer a road map for us to move forward.

The Real Origins of the Police: To Control the Working Class and Poor People

The police were not created to serve or protect the population – the police were created to control it. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, nothing resembling the modern police existed anywhere in the United States. Then, as a new working class developed in growing cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, business owners pushed to create militarized police forces removed from democratic control. This talk will focus on Chicago, where, as class conflict roiled the city in waves throughout the late nineteenth century, the business elite that ran the city built an increasingly powerful police force to maintain control – the police force we still have today.

Sam Mitrani is an activist and Associate Professor of History at College of DuPage. He earned his PhD from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 2009. He is the author of The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894 (University of Illinois Press, 2014). Most recently, Sam was active in Ed Hershey’s Working Class Fight campaign for 25th Ward Alderman. He can be reached at: mitraniv@cod.edu.

Open University of the Left
Lincoln Park Public Library
1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago (corner Racine)
across from DePaul University
free parking, (Red Line: Fullerton)

Open University of the Left
Lincoln Park Public Library
1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago (corner Racine)
across from DePaul University
free parking, (Red Line: Fullerton)

Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism

By Dr. Peter Hudis

One of the foremost issues confronting radical theory and practice today is articulating a viable alternative to capitalism. Although it has been widely assumed that Marx’s work offers little guidance for such an effort because of his objection to indulging in “utopian” speculations about the future, this talk will focus on largely-neglected aspects of his work which provides vital philosophical ground for envisioning an alternative to capitalist value production, statist domination, and alienated human relations. We will explore whether Marx was committed to a specific concept of a post-capitalist society that has taken on a new importance in light of the crises of existing society.

Peter Hudis is the author of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism (Haymarket, 2013) and Frantz Fanon: Philosophy of the Barricades (Pluto Press, forthcoming). He has edited several books on radical theory and is the General Editor of the planned 14-volume collection, The complete works of Rosa Luxemburg (Verso; two volumes have appeared so far). He is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Oakton Community College and a member of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization.

Saturday November 15th Open University of the left welcomes back long time OUL presenter Dr. Paul Street. Paul is a noted activist, journalist, author, historian, political commentator and public speaker. On that day, Paul will be talking about his just recently released new book published by Paradigm Publishers titled, “They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy.” This book cuts through all the political BS to reveal how the pervasive rule of big money drives the American Empire and the global capitalist economy.

Paul’s books always provide a perspective useful to gaining insight into how this government by Representative Plutocracy dominates and subverts the democratic aspirations of the citizens of empire. This is a perspective which will not be found in the Corpo-State’s media.

Saturday December 13th, Open University of the Left welcomes back Dr. Anthony DiMaggio. Tony earned his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is the author of at least five books. He has also written for numerous on-line and print publications including Counterpunch, Znet and Monthly Review just to name a few.

As can be seen from the title of his talk Tony will be discussing the growing problems found in higher education in the United States. Some topics discussed will include the rapidly declining state of higher education brought on in part by the abandonment of teaching itself, as a priority. He will also address the growing and unsustainable cost of higher education, which includes paradoxically the sorry state of higher education employment and the decline of faculty job security in the neoliberal era. Tony has experienced the problems affecting higher education from a first-hand perspective over the last decade, teaching and having taught at liberal arts colleges, major state universities, and at the community college level.